Monday May 11th Bike Doctor Annapolis RideThe Wheelsucker Report

Badly needing a "feel good" day after crashing on the Thursday training ride and then skipping the Fort Ritchie crit and the Deep Blue TT due to a combination of:
a) not feeling up to racing seriously after the crash
b) having committed to sailing Saturday and having that move to Sunday
c) Ridiculously windy conditions both days for crash victims to race in

The wheelsucker pointed out to his coach that not having raced either weekend day probably meant he did not need a day off the bike recovery day on Monday, and decided to do the Monday Bike Doctor ride.

The few times the wheelsucker has done this ride it has been a "no drop" ride with several regroup points and few riders strong enough to unmask the wheelsucker as the not-all-that-strong poseur he actually is. But just in case, the wheelsucker brought his ultra light Hi-Mod SuperSix with his magnesium American Classic AC300 wheels, no Powertap and only one bottle cage and bottle.

Not this time!

It occurred to the wheelsucker – as he rolled around the parking lot warming up – that with Ace McDermott, Stu Waring, marine Kyle Pittman, Patrick Hogan, Chris Adair, Bryan and a few other clearly strong riders there, an injured-and-trying-to-recover wheelsucker might have to work harder than he wanted to. But the wheelsucker calmed himself down thinking that it was a no drop ride, there were others clearly not as strong as the wheelsucker, and he could sit in at the back, do as little work as possible, use the regroup points to get back with the leaders, and if he felt really good, ramp it up once or twice. "Sounds like a plan!" thought the wheelsucker to himself. And he did roll out at the back and didn't worry as the group splintered on the route 450 climb to the right on Crownsville road.

Chris Adair and another strong rider were also sitting in at the back, but when they started to move up, the wheelsucker stayed on their wheels, doing as little work as possible, but gratefully taking the pull up to the next group. Shortly after the left turn onto Chesterfield road, the wheelsucker closed the last little gap himself to the lead group and hung on remora-like down the hill and up the two climbs to the right turn onto St. Stephen's Church Road. The wheelsucker did ramp it up a bit on the climbs, but aiming to keep within range rather than win the climb, somehow made it onto St. Stephen's within the leading group of three.

There was a short rest in a driveway, cut short when the next group of about seven riders rolled by without stopping. "So much for not dropping the pretty women and a no drop ride", thought the wheelsucker as he carefully tagged on the back of a group of three that chased back on to the other group of seven that had not stopped. Ace was driving the pace with help from Stu, but the wheelsucker was following a decent rider who was following Chris Adair, and with no one rotating through (Ace and Stu were taking LOOONG pulls), the wheelsucker figured Chris would close any gaps that opened in front of him, and all the wheelsucker had to do was stay within range of Chris' rear wheel. AND IT WORKED!!!

Part way down St. Stephen's Church Road there was a small rise, and the wheelsucker suspected that the rider in front of him (wearing a Snow Valley jersey and apparently not a current racer) might pop, and carefully went around him to be directly on Chris' wheel. The Snow Valley rider did make it up that roller behind the wheelsucker, but was gone a couple of rollers later. With the exception of Patrick Hogan who was wearing a Discovery Channel jersey, the lead group looked like an ABRT Team Trial Time effort (there were no non-ABRTers left). And then after hammering up another roller Patrick pulled out and waved those behind him past, and sat up. The group continued to the right on Severn Chapel, with the wheelsucker still on the back, not having taken a single pull.

And then it happened… Ace and Stu decided someone else should pull and the group started rotating. Much too soon Chris was on the front with the wheelsucker on his wheel. Chris pulled to the Waterbury Road climb and started to tire. He pulled off and the wheelsucker sort of pulled through but not going superfast, so the group bunched and others took the lead, allowing the wheelsucker to get back to wheelsucking at the back. The Waterbury Road climb starts a little steep, and then goes to a false flat that goes and goes, and the key is to keep accelerating on the false flat. Ace was doing just that on the front, with riders tiring trying to hang on, and gaps opening.

The left onto Baltimore Hill Road (rather than going another hundred feet and turning left on General’s Highway) was a recent change in the route, and that caused Kyle Pittman to sit up and wait, so at the left it was Ace leading, the wheelsucker in second trying to find an easy way to close the gap, and Bryan, and that was it! Ace declined to slow down much, but the three regrouped after the traffic light at General's Highway (which was green for them and almost certainly turned red before anyone else got there) and hammered down Sunrise Beach Road.

All good things come to an end, and Ace pulled off, and the wheelsucker was obliged to take a pull, leading the other two through the right turn onto Old Herald Harbor Road. But the wheelsucker was careful to make it a short-and-not-very-fast-pull, and quickly flicked his elbow to let Bryan have a go. And Bryan certainly "had a go", going hard and fast and long, while the wheelsucker sat in and recovered. The problem for Bryan was that there is a climb on Old Herald Harbor, and when Bryan pulled off just before the start, Ace and the wheelsucker were ready to climb, and Bryan was red-lined. Bryan popped but an uncharacteristically merciful Ace sat up and suggested the wheelsucker do the same. Knowing that failing to follow an Ace suggestion would probably result in no mercy from Ace later, the wheelsucker took the hint and they soft pedaled up the first climb, allowing Bryan to catch back on. But Bryan seemed determined to get a hard workout, and was back on the front soon enough – probably aided by the wheelsucker pulling off very quickly when it was his turn – just in time to tire before the last climb on Old Herald Harbor. Ten feet before the summit, Bryan gasped that he was done and the others should continue. The wheelsucker told him he had eight feet to go to the top, and Bryan hung on and caught back on at the right turn onto River Road. There is one smaller roller early on, and then River Road is a gentle downhill to water level, and then slowly climbs up, and transitions to false flat and then gets steeper, before a hard right swing into a short wall to the right turn on Old General’s Highway. Ace drove the pace most of the way down, and then pulled off in favor of the wheelsucker. The wheelsucker knew he had to get off the front and recover well before the wall, so took another wussy not-very-fast-not-very-hard-and-not-very-long pull before rotating to the back and then recovering while watching Bryan commit cycling suicide by driving the pace up the false flat. Watching this in amazement the wheelsucker was finally compelled to tell Bryan to pull off and save himself, but it was too late for Bryan. Ace took the lead just about where the false flat starts to steepen. The wheelsucker had recovered, had shifted his gears, and was ready to hang on like grim death, while Bryan had no chance, and popped before the right turn. Ace "Cancellera" McDermott took the turn in a relatively high gear and without getting out of the saddle or even visibly straining, ground it out at a slow cadence. Behind him the wheelsucker would push a gear until he couldn't push it anymore, then shift down one gear and repeat. And slowly but inexorably the gap started to open. Ace continued to climb at a good pace, while the wheelsucker was spinning faster and faster, in a lower and then lower gear trying to accelerate up the climb. Ace had a nice gap at the top and simply kept the power on as he turned onto Old General's Highway, turning a small gap into a huge one as a blown wheelsucker caught his breath and rolled after him. The wheelsucker was resigned to waiting for Bryan while Ace rolled away on his own, but traffic forced Ace to wait at the left turn onto Honeysuckle, and he then waited for Bryan. When they reformed, the wheelsucker was careful to make sure he was on the back, and so was rested enough to make it up the short climbs on Honeysuckle to the left turn on Crownsville Road. And of course, Ace was leading. Once on Crownsville, Ace pulled off and the wheelsucker, thinking the ride was almost done, the road was flat, and Bryan was tired, took a longer, faster, harder pull (for the wheelsucker) and was rewarded for his efforts by very nearly not making it back on when he pulled off shortly before the left turn back onto 450/Defense Highway. Fortunately Ace was in a benevolent mood and did not push the pace on the climb out on 450 and announced at the left onto Housley Road that he was spinning in his small change ring the rest of the way. The wheelsucker sighed gratefully to himself and he and Bryan rode easily with Ace the rest of the way back to the parking lot. The rest of the group rode in later, mostly in small groups.

All in all a good ride for the wheelsucker. And it turns out Ace was going easy, as he was thinking of the Tuesday ride and racing Greenbelt on Wednesday.